In recent days I have seen general questions in twitter on how does one in the Government find conferences to attend. Well that can be a bit of a problem, as the question keeps getting asked. Additionally, not all Government conferences are geared towards the same target audience. Even more so, since not all Government employees want to be in an echo chamber, they most likely want to also attend conferences in Industry/disciplines to network with the rest of the world.
So how does one handle the multitude of conferences that are out there to get on your radar?
Well I can tell you what I do and hopefully you will share your own experiences to help others who might want to know your tricks for filling out your calendar.
First, for me its not just conferences, its any type of event where I want to attend those with like minds and ideas or possibly different minds and ideas. Any event I am scheduled to attend or be a speaker, as soon as I get the confirmation, I add it to my “Events” page. In fact I just updated this page earlier today with a new event – ISS World Americas 2008, Washington, D.C.
Next for me, I started creating a plan for what I wanted to do with my career in what conferences I wanted to attend and which ones I potentially want to speak. I put this plan together in a Google Document, in which my company can see and help me act on, as well as add to the list to help me be aware of potential opportunities.
I think that what I have so far might help others who are in the Social Web and in Government or supporting Government, so your miles may vary. However while some of my links are specific, others link to listings of more generic events. Also I have added the deadlines for some “call for papers“, another Google search term I use when trying to find events.
Events and Deadlines Coming up to Submit
- Enterprise 2.0 09 – Boston, (Call for Papers December 19, 2008)
- Web 2.0 Expo 09 San Francisco – Call for Papers – October 8, 2008 – deadline passed)
- Open Source Business Conference - Deadline for Submission: Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Conference Sites of Interest to Me
- NCSI – https://www.ncsi.com/Home/Default.aspx
- FBC – http://www.fbcinc.com/searchresults.aspx
- Gnomedex – http://www.gnomedex.com/
- Blogworld 2009 – http://www.blogworldexpo.com/
- SXSWi 2009 – http://sxsw.com/interactive/
- Act Gov -http://www.actgov.org/
- ALI Conferences – http://www.aliconferences.com/
- ISS World Traning – http://www.issworldtraining.com/
- http://govitwiki.com/wiki/Civilian -A site with more links to conferences
Additionally, some great resources are right at your fingertips that you are probably already using. Twitter, Facebook networks, and NINGs (social networks for specific groups). In fact, I am attending one Government 2.0 event tonight that was coordinated on Facebook and another I found out about through twitter tomorrow night.
Specifically when it comes to NINGs I am a member of:
Many of these events that I find valuable to me, I do like to share with my community, so I will add them to Intellipedia when it seems relevant to share (which is most of the time). In fact, this past summer, I helped plan, schedule, run a/v support, and moderated a panel on Web 2.0 for the first ever Intelligence Community Enterprise 2.0 Conference, WIRe and ICES. I believe the conference was a success and hope that we do it again and see the new Government connections I have made in the past year attend and share.
So that’s my advice on how to find Government (and technology) conferences. I hope you have some tips to share. I will see you at an event soon.